Best Quote I Heard In A While

And if you try to bring up how sensationally he played on a gloomy night when the seven Spurs outside of the Duncan-Tony Parker-Barry troika combined for just 16 points, Barry said: "It's like putting whipped cream on s---."

What I Learned Today, Email To Sam, And Thoughts On Experimental Economics

Sam said I needed to expand on these, but expansion is overrated.

1. Being professional and organized are the keys to success. It is all about time management and getting something done everyday.

2. Someone needs to really reexamine experimental economics. Levitt and List (2007) tried to do this, but they miss the point. Field experiments are as uninteresting and uninformative as laboratory experiments and econometric analysis on revealed preferences. McCloskey's rhetoric argument comes to mind. We are all telling stories. The beauty of stories is that at the end the reader defines what the moral (meaning) is.

3. I readily admit I am an idiot, but "bias" has no relevance in economics. This is also a big problem with experimental economics. The experimenter has to define "bias." This makes "bias" subjective.

4. I want to be an applied economist. I want to apply the "economic way of thinking" to relevant problems. Yes, "economic way of thinking" and relevant are subjective.

I will settle for a job that pays well and has good benefits.

Sports Thoughts

1. I could not watch the Pistons last night. I care too much. I do not like the Celtics, and I have a feeling that this is going to be a rough series for the Pistons.

2. The National League is getting screwed with this 16 versus 14 team alignment. You can take this argument further and break it down to divisions. A six team division versus a four team division. Is this a big deal? Probably not. But it bothers the hell out of me.

3. I am reading David Halberstram's The Education of a Coach about Bill Belechick. I still say it is about luck.

Some Thoughts

1. Pat Jordan should write an article about Seth Greenberg. There is a classic shade of gray Jordan story there.

2. I cannot stand people saying "Well, you have the right to your opinion." What does that mean? If you do not agree with me, tell me why. If you are tired of arguing, then you must be wrong. This is as bad as saying "You are biased."

3. Some times the world seems fake. People seem fake. Existence seem fake. These times create religion. This is why people talk about "living for a higher cause." But that seems fake too. Reality has to be perception. Perception is all we have.

Thinking, Time, The Next Five Minutes, Athletes And Other Shit

I stay away from others' comments. I read them. They make me feel self-important. I am saddened by this self-importance. So I stay away.

But in the last post some things came up. It is obvious I do not practice what I preach. One cannot blog at 9:49AM from his office about how important it is to to get up and go to work. This blog is not my work. It cannot be. I get paid to bullshit about integrated pest management in the United States. I do not get paid to blog.

This being said, my work requires me to have portfolio of ideas at all times. It requires me to read. It requires me to be up-to-date with things going on in the world around me. It allows me to examine many ideas and increase my "knowledge." Maybe allows is a better word.

I am a knowledge worker. I do not possess any physical skills. I do not perform manual labor. My "knowledge," my "human capital," my capacity to bullshit earns my salary. This is what college degrees do. They turn people into professional bullshitters.

I wish I could romanticize this fact. I cannot. All I can say is that "some of this bullshit is kind of cool."

To be good at anything, one has to focus. One has to concentrate on the task in front of him. He has to take control of the the next five minutes. Just the next five minutes, nothing else matters.
I agree with Jeff. Jim Brown would run that lily white motherfucker over. He would not think about it. He would just do it. I have to bullshit about integrated pest management well enough to get me a job.

I agree with Sam. I have to maintain a portfolio of ideas. This will be key to getting a job. A portfolio of ideas requires thinking. It does not require worrying. Worrying is a waste of time. I cannot continue to waste time. I cannot continue to have too much time on my hands. Life is much too short.

So I am going to quit fucking around. I was fortunate enough to be around some good athletes. The one common thread between all succesful athletes is training and focus. They train and focus to the point where they cannot worry. They gain knowledge in their training, but when they play, they just do. All they care about is the next play or event. All the other shit leaves their mind, and they just do.

I have been like this before, and I will be like it again. And I am going to stay away from others' comments.

"The trouble with talking
Is it makes you sound clever
The trouble with waiting
Is you’ll just wait forever

There’s a loop of excuses
That plays in your mind
And makes the truth
Even harder to find"

What Successful People Have Done

And they got up in the the morning and went to work.

And they worked.

And they did not let others' perceptions cloud their work.

And they did not let their own perceptions cloud their work.

And they did not let depression stop their work.

And they integrated their experiences, their successes, and most importantly their failures into their work.

And when the day had ended and their work was done, they allowed the day to end and their work to be done.